AOTK announces that the 2018 winner of the AOTK
Innovation Prize is Karl Stoffel, MD, PhD, Deputy Head of the Department of
Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology at the Cantonal Hospital Basel-Landschaft.

The AOTK Executive Board (TKEB) ​​awards individuals or groups with this
prestigious AOTK prize in recognition for their leading involvement and
innovative contributions to projects.

Daniel Buchbinder (TKEB Chairman) presented the
certificate to Stoffel in an awards ceremony at the AOTK Chairman's Meeting,
which was held alongside the AO Foundation Trustees Meeting in Basel.
Stoffel was selected due to his outstanding contributions to the following two
projects.

Stoffel, who has been a medical member of the Lower
Extremity Expert Group (LEEG) since 2012, supervised and guided the development
of the Femoral Neck System (see also Innovation Magazine 2017). This implant is a fixed-angle gliding fixation
device which allows minimally invasive fixation of femoral neck fractures.

Stoffel's innovative ideas influenced the design of
the implant and instrument set, as well as the surgical technique that allows the
surgery to be performed in a highly efficient way. During product development on
this, Stoffel supervised a biomechanical study at the AO Research Institute to analyze the stability of the Femoral Neck System
as compared to traditional fixation methods (DHS screw, DHS blade, threecannulated screws). The study details and
results which underline the potential of the new implant can be found here.

The Femoral Neck System was released to the market in 2017, and Stoffel
performed the first surgery worldwide. AO Clinical Investigation and Documentation (AOCID) and AOTK have together initiated a Focus Registry Study with Stoffel as the
principal coordinating investigator, to analyze the clinical performance of the
implant system. This study is part of AOTK's evidence generation strategy to
prove the benefit of new developments.

Realizing the growing significance of periprosthetic
fracture management, AOTK formed a Periprosthetic Fracture Taskforce (PFTF),
which Stoffel chairs. The PFTF's mandate was to develop new solutions for
periprosthetic fracture fixation of the femur. Three parallel development
projects were initiated in collaboration with DePuySynthes as industrial
partner.

One of the projects, a new modular plating system, heavily
relied on Stoffel's design input and expertise. This system has the potential
to set the new standard for plating of periprosthetic femur fractures. Under
Stoffel's chairmanship, the PFTF successfully achieved its goal of driving individual
projects forward to final design. The LEEG is now responsible for the
modular plating system until product launch.

Everyone at AOTK congratulates Stoffel on his
achievements and looks forward to continuing this fruitful collaboration with
him as part of our shared goal of further advancing patient care.​​​​​​​​